Not ready to take the plunge into Vista land but still find yourself wanting the cool new Aero Glass UI that all versions of Vista feature, except Basic edition?  Contained below is some free software that will convert the look and feel of XP into Vista (more or less) for free.  Keep in mind that you will still need sufficient hardware to run the advanced effects, meaning at least 1GB of memory (RAM) and a dedicated graphics card with at least 128MB of memory.

Microsoft has finally released a beta version of its Windows Media Center Internet TV platform for Windows Vista machines and Xbox 360.

Vista has suffered another blow. Just days after Microsoft offered XP as a downgrade option for Vista users, the company has announced that it will extend selling Windows XP until the end of June 2008.

Microsoft has disclosed that in the coming holiday season TV sets may be used to view movies and Internet videos stored on computer running Windows Vista.

Afraid that website you just visited might harbor malware of some kind?  Fear not, with a new product from ZoneAlarm two of the most popular browsers become immune to almost any type of attack.

Microsoft has finally released another Vista Ultimate Extra, Windows DreamScene, but has delayed the release of 19 remaining language packs for another month.

Microsoft may still be running behind the schedule that we had all hoped for but at least in this case it delivered on its promise to deliver Vista SP1 to testers before the end of the month.  Vista SP1 contains some notable improvements and it’s really too bad the rest of us can’t get our hands on it.

One of the perks of buying Vista Ultimate was supposed to be the ability to get extra features and services that users of lesser Vista editions would not be able to get.  “Ultimate Extra” add-ons were supposed to ship by the end of this summer, which has come and gone, Microsoft even missed its own self-imposed deadline leaving many wondering when or even if these features will be available.

Almost no business on the planet is ready to deploy Vista on a large scale and some are not even looking at a small scale test, XP works, most people are happy with XP so Microsoft is offering a downgrade option to XP for some versions of Vista.

It seems that Microsoft is slipping on even its limited beta test phase as testers have not yet received any downloads or information regarding Vista SP1.  Many were expecting to have both Windows Server 2008 RC0 and Vista SP1 Beta by now but Microsoft isn’t saying much.

Vista is still lagging behind in XP when it comes to performance of the system, some would say general performance is affected as well but gaming performance takes a bigger hit.

You may not be able to teach an old dog new tricks but those old dogs, in this case, a virus have a tendency to crop up now and then.  Microsoft is eating a bit of crow after a more than decade old virus infected some Vista based laptops sold in Danish and German retail stores.

Aside from making continuous progress toward resolving application and hardware compatibility issues on its latest OS, Microsoft is also focusing on improving the security features of Vista in SP1, especially in light of a study by Amplitude Researcher that shows that half of Windows Vista adoption was driven by security.

Microsoft is more than happy to talk sales figures regarding Vista but when it comes to Office products, not so much.  But, new information points out that Office 2007 might be outselling Vista.

In a study conducted by Dutch Consumers’ Union on the problems experienced by Vista users, it concluded that “Vista is not yet a sufficient replacement for Windows XP” and recommended to consumers to consider alternative operating system.